Caveman Inventions

A Neanderthal (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis), is a prehistoric human often called a "caveman." Cavemen, and women, are responsible for the most fundamental inventions known to mankind. While the tools and instruments may seem simple to modern society, when the Neanderthals invented even the simplest tool, the magnitude of the invention is parallel to inventing the Internet, the mobile phone or the aeroplane.

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Hunting Club

One of the earliest cavemen inventions was the hunting club, a basic but essential hunting tool for killing large animals by beating them to death. The Neanderthals most likely also used the hunting club, before the later invention of the spear, to ward off enemies or attack predators. The hunting club is made of a piece of tree wood that the cavemen carved with a bone or stone. They essentially invented the baseball bat, though one end of the club is much broader so that the club hit more area and weighed more than the tapered end.

The hunting club was one of the first "caveman" inventions. (Hemera Technologies/Photos.com/Getty Images)

Clothing

Evidence suggests that prehistoric human beings, like Neanderthals, may have begun wearing clothing up to 500,000 year ago. Taking clothing for granted as a basic human need, it is possible that caveman invented clothing from the skins of animals. While sewing tools, like needles and fishhooks, were developed later, about 40,000 years ago, the cavemen patched animal hides together. Each animal skin, such as the bear or leopard, would require a new patching method.

Stone Tools

Cavemen invented stone tools, such as the hand axe and the cleaver, also known as a butcher's knife. While the tools were not made of metal, the hard stone material made it possible for Neanderthals to carve flesh from animal bone, skin animals and fish and kill predators. Neanderthals also invented stone tools to carve pictures into cave walls to depict daily life scenes, like hunting.

Burial

Neanderthals buried their dead in the ground in coffin-like encasements, according to a 2003 Smithsonian magazine article by Joe Alper. The cavemen created a stone-lined pit, like a grave. They wrapped the dead body in a bearskin, or other thick animal skin. In France, archaeologists discovered 70,000-year-old remains of a buried man.